She-Hulk: Attorney At Law's Trailer Has MCU Fans All Saying The Same Thing, And It Isn't Good
The long-awaited trailer for Disney+'s "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" finally dropped on May 17. Starring "Orphan Black" actress Tatiana Maslany as the lovelorn, fashionable, and eternally strong Jennifer Walters, the series, as hinted at by the trailer, looks to combine the humor of a workplace sitcom, the romantically-frustrated-single-girl-in-the-city feeling of "Ally McBeal," and the rough-and-tumble action of your average Marvel series.
This combination of action, humor, and family camaraderie — courtesy of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), cousin of Jennifer and her compadre in fighting crime and hulking out in anger — aims to win the attention of a whole new group of Marvel-loving fans, and perhaps coax a whole new phalanx of comedy-loving women into climbing on the MCU bandwagon. The series will focus on Jennifer's transformation from workaday attorney to crime-fighting superheroine — who also still moonlights as a lawyer, superpowers or not. Banner will be her mentor, and fans will be quickly introduced to her foes and friends around the court.
But devotees of the MCU, fans of She-Hulk, and casual observers definitely had one big bone to pick with the first trailer for "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law." There was something about the montage of scenes that rubbed viewers the wrong way. What did they all remark upon after seeing the trailer for the first time?
MCU fans hate the show's use of CGI
A very large segment of MCU fans who watched the trailer had one big problem with what they saw — they felt that the CGI used on Jennifer and Bruce looked very retrograde and low in quality.
On Twitter and Reddit, fans gathered to express their dismay and delight over what they'd witnessed in the trailer. "Nice to see that Marvel honored the early 2000s 'She-Hulk is Ally McBeal but green' high concept with some CGI that looks like it came from 2003," snarked @graemem. "CGI for She-Hulk looking like a rip off Sim's game," wrote @RED3CORAT3, adding a screencap of She-Hulk looking annoyed. "i hope theyre still working on that she-hulk cgi bc she looks like a human from a 2007 dreamworks feature," complained @puny2008.
A number of fans pointed to the show's high budget as a reason why they were disappointed in the trailer and were confused as to why it looks so cartoony and dated. "It's hard for me to give She-Hulk any slack for the CGI when these MCU shows have movie budget. She-Hulk is 10 episodes with $10-15mill to spend per episode. That's enough of a budget to make a green lady look legit," opined @EvanReadsComics. "Reminder that each episode of She-Hulk has a budget of 25M. What the hell happened to the CGI?" wondered @hodceu.
Fans posting to the Marvel Studios Spoilers subreddit had similar issues with the show's use of CGI. "Once again, the CGI looks terrible," noted u/pwosk12 on a thread dedicated to talking about the trailer. Multiple fans expressed their belief that poor CGI has been an issue throughout Marvel's Phase Four, specifically mentioning the CGI of "Moon Knight" as being the visual SFX equal of "She-Hulk" while praising the CGI in "Eternals" and "WandaVision."
Other fans are willing to defend it
On the other hand, there were a number of fans who showed up to praise the trailer in spite of the shortcomings others perceived in it. "A few moments of hit-or-miss cgi doesn't negate all the incredible work put in, and I think a fact a lot of y'all are missing is that She-Hulk is still THREE months away. Tired of the disrespect vfx artists get," wrote @spideysMarvels. They joined a number of fans in praising the show's special effects artists, recognizing that the industry can be a high-pressure place to work where a lot of time must be dedicated to carefully sculpting new worlds in a realistic way. "Me watching Twitter get huffy because the CGI in the very fun SHE-HULK tv series trailer isn't at AVATAR 2 levels," tweeted film critic William Bibbiani, adding a GIF of Marilyn Monroe rolling her eyes.
The trailer had its defenders on Reddit as well. "I keep forgetting this sub is solely occupied by expert VFX artists. This looks dope," wrote a Reddit user. "Looks fun! CGI is a little off but I'm optimistic," added u/Star-Prince. They join a number of fans who weren't put off by the trailer's use of mocap and CGI.
Other fans expressed their belief that the trailer's use of CGI might be a storytelling device. "the cgi being messy is supposed to represent how jennifer's transformation is messy at first and as the show progresses and her being she-hulk gets easier the cgi will also gradually improve," predicted @crdanexo.
Love her or hate her, soon MCU fans will come to know her. "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" will debut on Disney+ on August 17, 2022.